Sugar!
by soul punisher
Summary: Why does Pinkie Pie act the way she does?


It was an unusually cool summer day in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle has just finished another chapter of another hefty book. Her eyes drooped with fatigue; she did enjoy studying, and sometimes reading for fun, but the purple pony needed a break. After so much reading and comprehending, she looked "like a zombie". Or so Spike said. The mare trotted up to her balcony, allowing the refreshing breeze to banish her grogginess, and the sunlight to recharge her energy. After minutes of submitting to the clean air, the pony decided to spend the afternoon outside.

"Spike," her voice rang throughout the library, "I'm going out. I'll be back soon." Twilight went for the door hoping for some kind of reply from the dragon, but only got a few steps before she heard a clash between pots and pans and a yell.

Good enough.

She briskly cantered out her dwelling and embraced the same lovely air that teased her before; this was exactly what she needed. After minutes of walking, she noticed the cutie mark crusaders behind what seemed like a lemonade stand. As she approached, the older pony saw unhappy faces on all three fillies… until they saw Twilight. Their expressions completely changed; they could not stop smiling and jumping up and down.

"Hi Twilight!" Applebloom nearly scream.

"Hey girls." she replied as a one-sided smiled grew on her face, "what are the cutie mark crusaders up to this time? Nothing dangerous I hope."

"Wanna buy some applenade?" Scootaloo asked as she and the other two young fillies stopped bouncing.

"A-applenade?" Twilight questioned with hesitance.

"Yeah! It's like lemonade, but with apples! Applebloom got the apples for us!"

"Try it!"

"You'll love it!"

"Won't ya have one?"

"Just one cup!"

"Okay! Okay…" The purple pony gave in. "One applenade please."

"That'll be three bits." Applebloom smiled, her eyes bigger than ever. Twilight handed over the bits and Sweetie Belle pushed a plastic cup over the wooden counter towards the older mare. As Applebloom collected and dispersed the money evenly among the three, Twilight took a look at her order.

It was a clear-yellow tinted liquid with a strong scent of fresh apples and a thin green apple slice floating on top. And there was even an added pinch of powdered sugar on top of the fruit slice, for the final touch of course. She hesitantly lifted the cup, and took a gulp. Twilight tasted a certain apple spice tickle the sides of her mouth while the near-supersaturated amounts of sugar burned her throat. Despite the excess sugar, she expected much worse from the drink-

Then, she nearly lost it.

A terrible bitterness vacuumed all the liquid sweet and spice, leaving a wet powder on her tongue, compelling her to spit it out. She painfully forced the rest it down. Although she did not regurgitate, she did show signs of dislike, much to the crusaders' dismay.

"What the h-" she stopped in mid-sentence.

"Ya don't like it…" Applebloom looked like she was about to cry.

"I knew this was a bad idea anyways…" Scootaloo mumbled with sorrow.

"Let's just face it… we're never gonna get our cutie marks…" Sweetie Belle began tearing up.

This broken Twilight's heart; she couldn't leave them thinking it was terrible. "Girls…" she began, "that was the best drink ever!"

The cutie mark crusaders became cheerful once again and jumped with joy. "YEAH!"

Twilight was happy.

"Have another!"

Twilight was scared.

"Uh- I can't, I…" the purple pony tried to think of an excuse. Even a rainbow dash excuse would do.

"Oh that's okay!" Applebloom softly smiled, "Ya already said you liked it. Just tell everypony 'bout how good applenades are. Okay? Promise?"

"I promise. But um…" Twilight's eyes slightly grew, "W-what was in that… applenade?" She couldn't recall such a sharp reaction to any beverage she had ever consumed before.

"Apples! DUH!"

"Nononononono…no. I mean the other ingredients! The other stuff. It tasted funny." She smacked her lips and squinted her eyes.

Applebloom looked at her two friends who just shrugged. "Well, we used some water n' apple-cinnamon spice n' other apple spices n' some-"

"Shh!" Sweetie Belle scolded.

"We're not supposed to tell! It's a secret ingredient!" Scootaloo quickly reacted.

Twilight knew that she shouldn't force them to tell her; "You know it was _the best drink I ever had_ _ever in my entire life of living ever forever._" As stupid as she sounded, she continued, "And it would mean so much to me if you could just tell me what it was. But if you don't want to… that's fine. Oh well! I guess you don't care about your auntie Twilight Sparkle enough. I understand."

She was acting like a complete Rarity.

The three younger fillies looked at each other and sighed. "You promise you won't tell?"

"Promise."

Scootaloo looked at the ground, then back up to her beloved "autie". "It's sugar. We got it from Pinkie Pie."

"Pinkie Pie gave you three sugar? Why did you go to Pinkie Pie?"

"Cuz Pinkie Pie is t'best with sweets don'tcha know?" Applebloom spoke up, "Besides, Applejack was mad at me fer takin' the apples without her c-co-con…"

"Consent?" Twilight finished for her.

"Yea', that! But Pinkie Pie told us not ta' eat it."

"Well why would she tell you tha- what! S-she told you not to eat it?" The studious pony questioned with fear, "W-why would you let _me_ eat it then?

Applebloom chucked a bit, "Oh Twilight yer funny!"

The other two fillies began giggling as well. "You didn't _eat_ it." Sweetie Belle hopped in, "You _drank_ it. There is a difference."

Twilight felt her heart beat faster as she could only begin to wonder why, what, and how. Her mind raced and legs itched. She raised her hoof and scratched at herself. She needed to see Pinkie Pie. She would have all the answers.

"Twilight…? Are you okay?"

"I have to go! I need to see Pinkie Pie!" The purple pony blurted out feverishly.

With no time to lose, she darted off to Sugarcube Corner. "Why would Pinkie Pie say that? Why would she tell them not to eat it? Why am I so itchy? What if it wasn't sugar! Perhaps the alleged sugar was… something else." She conversed with herself, "I hope she is there! She better be there! Why is everypony looking at me like I'm crazy? Ugh!" Twilight's eyes grew larger and her legs worked faster as she manically sprinted through Ponyville.

Within minutes she reached the house of sweets and barged in. Sure enough, Pinkie Pie was laying rainbow frosting on top of another batch of cupcakes. "Oh hi Twilight! You want to try some deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious cupcakes? I made them out of-"

"What did you give them?" Twilight interrupted.

"Huh?

"What did you give them? You gave Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle something to put in their drink! What was it?"

Pinkie Pie stared blankly at her for a few second before responding, "OH! It was sugar!"

"I know that but-"

"Well if you knew that then why would you ask me?"

"Ugh! You told them not to eat it! Why? Just tell me why!"

"Oh?" Pinkie Pie changed her tone. "Ooooooohhhh… um, that's because it was not for them. It was for the customers." Then her tone returned to its former happiness, "Have you tried their applenades? Aren't they great?"

Twilight was at a loss of words. She felt stupid (Rarity) and couldn't believe she ever doubted her friend or the crusaders. "Y-yeah." She sheepishly agreed. "Let's make some cupcakes!"

Pinkie Pie exploded with excitement. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOKAY! I'll get supplies from the basement." With that, the pink pony bounced down to the lower level of her house. She looked around a bit to make sure nothing was behind her. After enough examination, she maneuvered to a dark corner of the room and opened up a heavy sack filled with cocaine. She brushed her hoof across the fine white powder with stupor and scooped some onto her hoof. "Soon my friend…" she lifted the powder and snorted up. "…soon."


End file.
